Dawn of a Nightmare
by Masterofchaos9999
Summary: A new pony moves to Ponyville. Is he friend or foe? And Princess Luna is plagued by a nightmare rendering her incapable of doing her work. Will the mane six uncover the mysteries sursounding this new pony?
1. Dark Dreams

It was a warm summer night. The moon lilies were in bloom, spreading a sweet sent across the plains. On a small rise amidst the flowers an alicorn with a night black coat and flowing dark blue mane and tail sat breathing in the scent of the flowers and watching the shadows they cast in the light of the full moon overhead. As she stood up the light of the moon faded. Looking to the moon to see the problem she froze in fear of the sight above her. A jet black alicorn with blazing dark red and purple mane and tail was covering the moon with its wings making the moon a black disc surrounded by a blazing light. An evil laugh filled the air and all things on the plain died. She wanted to run be couldn't move or ever rip her eyes from the sight of the evil one floating above her. No, all she could do was scream.

Princess Luna woke with a fright, as she regained her scenes she was relieved to see that she was still within her chambers in Canterlot Castle's south wing. She looked to the window and saw the first glimmer of sunshine coming up over the horizon. Luna sighed and prepared herself for another day as regent in her sister's place. It had been two months since the attack of the changeling army but almost a week ago Celestia suddenly announced that she was taking a vacation. Luna had been left in Canterlot to maintain the cycle of night and day over the land of Equestria.

Luna made her way to the castle's keep and climbed the stairs to sun and moon chamber, where the princesses changed day to night and night to day. Standing in the center of the room she looked to the west and using her magic pushed the moon under the horizon and then turned and pulled the sun above the eastern horizon. This event left Luna exhausted and she collapsed to the ground breathing heavily. After a few minutes she had enough energy to stand again and slowly made her way back down the stairs. As she was returning to her chambers she saw a mahogany earth pony stallion with a chestnut mane and tail setting along the side of the hallway reading.

Luna tried to look as regal as possible as she passed him. But her front right knee decided to give out from fatigue at that exact moment causing the princess to fall in a heap right in front of the stallion. Luna heard him chuckle and quickly got up and turned on him. After a short time she said, "well, aren't you going to say something?"

"Regarding what Princess?" he replied without lifting his gaze.

"You're sister's sudden vacation, you're exhaustion, or that the documents allowing for my move to Ponyville are not yet signed?" he continued.

"You know that my signature would work as well as Celestia's," Luna replied.

"Yes but you are completely spent after raising the sun each day so I did not bring it to your attention."

"I have told you I'm fine."

"And I don't believe a word of it. You're completely exhausted, and need to rest."

"I'm telling you I'm-"

"Princess Luna, that was an order,"

Luna sighed in defeat and made her way to her chamber smiling to herself all the way. Now she had an excuse to escape the routine of meeting she had today. As she walked away the earth pony picked up the book and made to prepare for the days ahead.

* * *

**A/N And that was my first attempt at story writing. Any helpful criticism will be much appreciated.**


	2. Chapter 2

The last two months had been slow for the royal guard. After the changeling army was defeated the guard had been on high alert until it was confirmed that the changelings were gone and the caves closed off. Shining Armor had let trainings slip today and the amount of guards on duty was at a minimum. As Shining Armor walked through the halls of Canterlot Castle he wondered when Princess Celestia would arrive. He was on his way to meet up with Princess Cadence for lunch and was about halfway to the central hall when he heard furious galloping coming up behind him. He turned and waited for the messenger to arrive and catch his breath before asking, "Well what is it then?"

"You have been requested in the drawing-room, sir, " the messenger replied.

Shining Armor was puzzled by this.

"Requested by whom might I ask?"

"G-gen-General Saber, sir," he stuttered, recoiling as he did so.

Shining Armor stood there unable to move from the shock of hearing that name. Shining Armor remembered many stories of the mighty general of the Equestrian army. The stories told of a fearless leader who used twin swords to cut down all in his path, he was said to be able to decapitate two dragons with one swing of his sword, said to have won the battle of Fire Valley single hoofed, and that armies would surrender to him as soon as he entered the battlefield.

Jerking back to reality Shining Armor sent the messenger off to tell Cadence that he would be late for lunch and began making his way to the drawing-room. As he rounded the corner to the drawing room he could see two unicorns stationed on either side of the door. They were dressed in jet black plate armor covering them from head to hoof, and as Shining Armor approached them they wordlessly opened the doors. Shining Armor slowly entered the room, his heart pounding and his breathing irregular as the doors closed behind him. Across the room, looking out the window stood a unicorn stallion with a deep blue mane and a fiery red mane and tail, the mighty General Saber.

Shining slowly walked forward and made a deep bow out from pure terror, but as he moved to stand a shadow crossed him and he froze, unable to move. He slowly raised his head and his eyes grew wide with fear for glaring back at him was the General. "Get up," he barked in a deep and very commanding voice.

Shining Armor quickly stood and met the General eye to eye. He smiled and turned back to the window as he said, "I knew you castle types were soft but this is truly sad. But time is short and we have business to attend to." Shining Armor could do little more than nod quickly as General Saber turned to face him once again.

"You and the remaining unicorns of the royal guard have been assigned to aid in moving Blazing Star and all of his equipment to Ponyville, is that understood?"

"Sir, yes sir," Shining Armor quickly responded out of habit from his time in training.

"Are you that scared of me? We are on the same team after all. You're dismissed."

Shining Armor made a quick bow and made his way out of the room and down the hall, getting as far away as possible from that room and the one inside.

* * *

**A/N sadly another short chapter but the evil will soon be reviled! **


	3. The Book

The Canterlot Royal Archives, an old barracks transformed into a small library filled with old tomes and scrolls that few can read anymore. Hidden fourteen floors below the throne room the archives see few visitors, but today was an exception. Blazing Star scanned the musty old tomes for something, anything to keep him busy over the next several days during his relocation. As he swept his gaze over the line of tomes before him one in particular caught his eye, Ileria Annals Volume XLIIX. Blazing Star was puzzled, in all of his research he had never come across a country named Ileria.

"Well what have we here?" he said as he pulled the book from the shelf. Opening the book to a random page he suddenly froze with fear. The book emitted a feeling, one of great fear, or was something in the book really watching him? Quickly he shut the book and shoved it away. Once the feeling died down he walked back over to the book.

"Somepony must have put a spell on this book to keep others from reading it," he concluded. He put the odd book in his saddle bag and left the library unaware that to royal guards in the library had seen this encounter and now were snickering to each other.

"The plan has worked perfectly!" one exclaimed.

"We found time, and now our queen can reawaken her master!" the other replied as they both began the decent to their hidden lair.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of her monthly ritual of rearranging all the books in the Ponyville library when Spike suddenly burst through the door. Dropping all the books Twilight turned on Spike but before she could begin her speech about not being disturbed, an ear-splitting boom made they both drop to the ground holding their ears.

"What was that?" Twilight asked as she ran out of the library and towards the center of the explosion. A large group of ponies from town had gathered near a small hill just outside of town were a large group of ponies dressed in the royal guard uniforms formed a large circle.

"Thankfully you only dropped a small vial, if it were much bigger you would have been blown to pieces," said a voice Twilight couldn't identify. As she pushed her way through the crowd and the ring of guards she saw a mahogany earth pony helping a royal guard to his feet.

"Time is short and we are down one more, do you think they can still manage captain Shining Armor?" the earth pony said.

"Of course. We can easily complete the spell in time," said a voice Twilight knew far too well.

"Shining!" Twilight called as she caught sight of her brother.

"Twily!" he called back as they ran forwards and embraced each other.

"What are you doing here, and were is Cadence?" Twilight continued.

"Well-"

"Captain Shining Armor, you can reminisce with your sister later. We need to complete the transport spells now," the earth pony called out as he continued walking up the hill.

"Who's that?" Twilight continued.

"Blazing Star, he's the princess' court physician," Shining said as walked up the hill after the earth pony. Intrigued by this spell they were supposedly casting got Twilight to follow them as well. Around the top of the hill was a ring of unicorn guards.

"Begin!" Shining Armor barked. At once all the ponies in the ring fired beams of energy that collided above the top of the hill, soon volts of lightning came from the quickly growing sphere. Then Twilight could make out walls, rooms, doorways. Then a large blast sent every pony other than Blazing Star to the ground, once Twilight regained her scenes, she looked up to see a large one story building with few windows and the entire thing reinforced with metal beams.

"Quickly, we are only half done!" Blazing Star called. The circle was reformed and the process repeated, this time when Twilight picked herself up off of the ground she saw a large sphere of metal with a long barrel reinforced with more metal stripes floating just above the building.

"And now the hard part," said Shining Armor as he followed Blazing Star up the hill.

* * *

**Sorry for this taking so long but I was suffering from a severe case of procrastination. **


	4. Night of the Storm

What Shining Armor had listed as "the hard part" appeared to be relatively simple in Twilight's eyes. The royal guard held the massive metal sphere in place while machine arms were attached to hold it in place. When they released the sphere it fell into a recess in the roof of the building then Blazing Star finished locking it in spot before dismissing every pony. After wards he jumped down from the building's roof and said, "Is there a miss Rainbow Dash present?"

"That would be me," Rainbow replied as she landed on the ground a few feet from him.

"You are the captain of the weather team yes?"

"That's right."

Blazing Star produced a scroll from his saddlebags and handed in to Rainbow and said, "Then I need you to create a lightning storm capable of producing around fifty lightning bolts directly above my laboratory."

"What!? We can't just make a storm that big! It would destroy the entire area!"

"Yes, but _I_ didn't ask. These are Princess Luna's orders. Also Princess Cadence is currently in critical condition and I can't make her medicine without me equipment operational."

"What!? Cadence is injured!" Twilight yelled.

"Are you deaf? That's what I just said," Blazing Star said as he walked over to the building and Rainbow flew of the gather the rest of the weather patrol.

"Does Shining Armor know?" Twilight said as she ran to catch up to Blazing Star.

"Yes, but don't worry she only has a virus that's capable of killing entire villages. Also I wouldn't stay here if I were you. You could get struck be lightning." Blazing Star said as he went into the building and shut the door behind him.

Twilight stood there aghast for a while before her senses returned and she set of to find Shining Armor. She cast a glance I the sky and saw that the weather patrol had the storm completely in place already. Twilight hurried as to not get caught by the storm, but that plan was short lived as roars of thunder could be heard now and arcs of lightning leapt from cloud to cloud. Twilight ran harder but she didn't seem to be getting any closer to the edge of the storm. Now curious Twilight stopped and looked around. Clouds blanketed the sky for as far as she could see.

"But we weren't that far from town," Twilight said to herself.

As rain started to fall Twilight ran as fast as she could in the direction she thought led to Ponyville. After about five more minutes of running an earsplitting boom sent Twilight to the ground. As Twilight stood she saw a light in the distance across a large hill. Had she found her back to town, or did the lightning start a fire? Twilight ran in the direction of the light and rounding the hill could see a flower emitting a warm yellow-orange glow. Confused Twilight approached the flower but was stopped dead when a bolt of lightning struck not five feet from her. Jumping back Twilight turned and run from the lightning and the flower.

"You seem to be a bit lost," came a whisper from somewhere Twilight couldn't see.

Turning to face the newcomer Twilight was surprised to see Blazing Star standing before her. He then turned to leave and Twilight ran to catch up to him.

"What are you doing out here," she asked.

"I could ask you the same question, but I was gathering ingredients for Cadences medicine," he replied.

"Well on me way back to town I seen to have gotten lost," Twilight replied, "what were you looking for?"

"A fire lotus, it's a flower that gives of an aura of heat making them easy to find in the rain and so far I collected enough to last for a while.

"How far from town are we?" Twilight continued.

"About a mile, you set off in the wrong direction."

They continued on though the rain and soon Ponyville came into view in the distance. Just then Blazing Star turned and began walking towards the glow of another fire lotus in the next valley. Twilight moved to follow him but she was struck a bolt of lightning.

* * *

The next thing Twilight knew she was standing in a large field covered in moon lilies. Looking up Twilight could see the full moon overhead. Then suddenly everything grew darker, and the lilies withered and died. Turning to run Twilight saw a jet black alicorn looming over her.

"Soon the darkness will consume the souls of the false princesses," the alicorn said in a voice that made Twilight stop in terror and caused chills to shoot down her spine. Suddenly Twilight awoke in a bed at the Ponyville hospital. Looking around she saw daylight streaming in through the windows and a note on the nightstand. Grabbing the note a small vial was also produced. The note read, Dear Twilight Sparkle, drink this vial and then come and see at me laboratory. Sincerely Blazing Star. Curious Twilight drank the liquid in the vial and almost immediately Twilight felt her energy returning. Taking the note with her she then set out to meet with Blazing Star.

* * *

**A/N Sorry this took so long to get posted, I had a virus on my computer that prevented me from doing much of anything. (Don't worry it's gone now.)**


	5. Awakening of the Shadows

Twilight had reached Blazing Star's lab without any interruption, but still wondered what Blazing Star had requested her for. Finding the door open walked in to the dimly lit room looking for Blazing Star bur only darkness greeted her eyes. Suddenly rows of lights switched on and flooded the large room with light. As Twilight's eyes adjusted she saw many large machines, crate upon crate of potions and bottles and at center of the room was a massive array of switches and buttons.

"Impressive isn't it," came Blazing Star's voice as he appeared next to the control bank.

"What is all this stuff?" Twilight Asked

"The complete inventory takes about three hours, but in summary, the largest alchemy lab in the world, but that is of topic. You're probable wondering why I called you here."

"A little, I also want to know what happened last night."

"You got struck by lightning and I dragged you back to town. Now as for why I called you here, I wanted to ask you if there is anything nearby that you would like to stop existing."

"Um, come again?"

Suddenly a large holographic display appeared before Twilight, as far as she could tell the display showed the edge of the Everfree Forest.

"Today please, I've already started the cannon."

Quickly pointing to a large tree on the edge of the forest, Twilight watched as Blazing Star quickly hit several buttons and switches across the control panel.

"Step outside and watch the show."

Still confused Twilight stepped outside and looked up to see the cannon now pointed at the tree she had selected. Suddenly small volts of electricity started skipping up and down the length of the cannons barrel, then a massive beam of energy shot from the end of the cannon's barrel. Looking to the forest edge, barely visible across the hills, she gasped to see only a smoke cloud remaining where the tree once stood.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Well back inside for the real reason I called you here," said Blazing Star as he walked back inside.

"Wait, where did you come from?"

"You were in the middle of picking your jaw up off the floor," he said as he walked back into his lab.

Back inside Blazing Star switched on a new holographic display, this one of an area unknown to Twilight. A small pile of rocks sat in the middle of rolling hills on the display.

"That, is what I call you here to see."

"I don't get it."

"Some unknown force convinced you to go the wrong way last night. Something made that storm far stronger than was planned. Something, there, is creating a field of high magical influence."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"You and your friends, the element bearers, seem to be separate of this force leaving you immune, so I want to ask you and your friends to accompany me on a research expedition to this area."

"So getting led out into the plains in the middle of a thunderstorm classifies as immune now," Twilight replied sarcastically.

"That was because you're a unicorn, if you haven't noticed it's been harder to use your magic recently."

"Well you are right about, wait how did you know that?"

"Are you going to come or not?" Blazing Star said changing the subject as he sorted several seemingly random items on a nearby table.

"What is my motivation?"

"This is taking too long, here look at this mirror."

"Why? What's so special about…?" Twilight trailed off as she became lost in the mirror.

"Rewind 37 seconds."

A pair of small silver beams of light connected with Twilight's eyes for a second before Blazing Star set the mirror down again.

"Wh-what happened?" Twilight said holding her head.

"I just told you that Cadence has recovered and returned to Canterlot, and you agreed that you and the other element bearers would help me on an expedition tomorrow.

"How do you know Cadence will be alright?"

Starting to get angry Blazing Star said, "Because she plays a major part in season three. Damn it."

"Season three? Of wha…"

* * *

Hours later Blazing Star wandered around his lab putting the last few things in their place. The low hum of the lightning cannon calmed his still aggravated nerves. It had taken two hours and twenty-seven uses of the astral mirror to finally get everything set up so that Blazing Star wouldn't be going unprepared or alone. Suddenly a book that didn't belong caught his eye.

"That's where I put you," he said as he picked up the old tome from the Canterlot archives. Setting the book on a podium and, remembering what happened last time, carefully opened the book to a random page, nothing happened. Starting to decipher the ancient text Blazing Star found that it was a report from a battle between the kingdom of Ileria and the "Northern Kingdoms". The battle had lasted for three days and three nights, but most interesting was that the general of the Ilerian army was an alicorn that supposedly held power over time itself. The next page gave a detailed account of rebuilding a village dated a month after the battle. Turning the page again suddenly Blazing Star was through back and a powerful force began trying to take control of him.

"What's this? You're resisting me?" came a deep commanding voice from inside Blazing Star's head.

"And you were expecting me to welcome you?" Blazing Star said as he pushed back against the force.

"It seems Chrysalis did do something right," said the voice.

_This isn't going to end well._ Blazing Star thought as he suddenly lost control of his own body.

"At long last, I am _free."_

Fear shot though Blazing Star realized that the voice he heard was his own.

* * *

**Epic cliffhanger!**


	6. Ruins of a Time Forgotten

The next morning the seven selected ponies met at Blazing Star's lab and set out on a two-day trek just to reach the mysterious stones. The trip consisted of Rainbow and AJ arguing, Rarity whining and carefully avoiding every puddle of mud left from the rain, Fluttershy mumbling nervously, Pinky being, Pinky, and Twilight and Blazing Star having a conversation that none of the others could hope to follow.

The rock outcrop had just appeared upon the horizon when Blazing Star was forced to stop in tracks.

"What is it?" came Twilight concerned voice.

"Just a simple magic barrier, seems like it stops all non-unicorn ponies from passing."

"So how do we get though?" said Rainbow Dash.

"With this," Blazing Star said producing a small silver disc with a ruby set in the center from his saddle bags and placing it against the force field. Suddenly the magic barrier buckled under a wave of energy sent out by the disc. "Well that went better than I expected."

"What were you expecting?" Twilight chimed in.

"For the shield to explode, now let's keep moving," Blazing Star said returning the disk to his saddlebag.

Upon reaching the stones the group fanned to explore the strange rock outcrop. About an hour later a great discovery had been made.

"It's ancient Equestrian; most of the runes are so worn I can't read it," said Blazing Star upon inspecting the line of runes carved on the side of one of the stones, "magic, stand, shine, center, the rest is to worn for me to read."

"Well that's no help!" Rainbow chipped in.

"Does this mean we can go home now?" said Fluttershy.

"Could in mean that I should us magic in the center of the stone ring?" asked Twilight.

"That could be, stand there and use a flash spell," Blazing Star replied.

Twilight was reluctant for fear of the unknown outcome but soon obliged. Upon the spell's casting two major events transpired, the entire party was temporarily blinded, and one of the large stone shattered reviling a large staircase descending deep into the earth.

"Well, that worked," Blazing Star said as he removed a piece of machinery that covered one of his ears and a lens covering his eye.

"What's that?" Rainbow inquired.

"An invention of mine, it lets me scan of life forms, read heat signals, see in the dark, detect traps and communicate with these, of which each of you get one," he said as he got six communicators out of his saddlebag and distributed, "Now I don't know what awaits us, but we will be safer if we split into teams, AJ and Rainbow you be one team, Pinkie and Rarity you be another, Twilight and Fluttershy, with me," he said he began to descend the long staircase.

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs the tunnel opened into a ledge in the side of a massive ravine that stretch far out of sight in all directions.

"Well, well an ancient city," Blazing Star said.

"You sound like this a common occurrence, Twilight responded.

"That's because it is, I've found dozens of ancient cities, big and small, all over our world. But this is by far the largest; I dare say it's bigger than all my other discoveries combined!" he said as he walked out and looked around at the walls of the ravine, as they were lined with buildings recessed into the walls.

"Wow," Rainbow said as she flew out into the center of the ravine.

"Be careful, this place was made by and for unicorns, so there may be traps incase pegasi got in," Blazing Star called causing Rainbow to quickly return to the ground. "Now from my knowledge of cities the biggest and most important thing is almost always, right in the center," he continued pointing to a large structure hanging in the center of the fissure supported by a multitude of bridges.

"How are we supposed to get down their?" Twilight asked.

"Well, we should split up and each group should try to find a path down," Blazing Star said.

After much arguing the group split up, and began to explore the ruined city. Only one group had taken the correct path, and as Blazing Star, Twilight and Fluttershy drew closer to the central building the shadows upon the walls and ground began to draw longer seeming to reach out to grab them to prevent the reaching their objective until.

"It would seem we took the right path, now let's just contact the others," Blazing Star said reaching for his headset but then lowering his hoof again.

"What's wrong?" Twilight said concerned in her voice.

"You, that is the problem," he said as he turned to face them, his eyes closed. Then his eyes opened and Twilight and Fluttershy were enveloped in a shadowy mist holding them off the ground and holding there muzzles shut so they couldn't scream.

As Twilight looked on, she saw that Blazing Star's eyes had become black lenses, no, not black, darker than black, as if all the evil in the world had been condensed into those darker-than-black lenses.

"How is it that one so weak can control such a power as the Channeler, a power so great that it's very existence defies all laws of nature?" he said as he circled Twilight.

"So sad that I have to do this, my great power long since lost," he continued placing one of his hooves against her forehead, "poison," he whispered.

Twilight squirmed under the blast of energy that followed, her muzzle still held shut by the dark mist.

Blazing Star walked back forward and locked his eyes with those of Twilight and Fluttershy, "Erase," he said. Twilight and Fluttershy's eyes dilated as their memories were removed.

"Are you all right?" came Blazing Star's concerned voice.

"Wha? What happened?" Twilight replied.

"I called the others and you two both passed out."

"I…I'm scared," Fluttershy squeaked from the corner.

"Come on, the others will be here soon," Blazing Star said helping them to their feet and beginning to walk out to the structure that hung between the walls of the ravine.

* * *

**That took way longer to write than it should have, but it just didn't sound right to me, that and I was being lazy.**


End file.
